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WWE is looking to make changes in the way consumers consume their content.
The company’s streaming service, WWE Network saw a 10% decrease to approximately 1.42 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The reason behind the decrease was due to lower subscription additions earlier in the year according the the fourth quarter earnings report released Thursday.
WWE is now pursuing several strategic initiatives that could assist in increasing monetization of its content.
READ: WWE Reports Highest Revenues In Company History, 2019 Fourth Quarter Earnings Report
The company announced they are reviewing “strategic alternatives” to the WWE Network, but did not provide further details.
Vince McMahon mentioned that “selling our rights to the majors” could provide a significant increase in revenue.
“Right now there’s no more better time to exercise the selling of our rights to all the majors. Quite frankly, all the majors are really clamouring for our content, that could be a significant increase in terms of revenue.”
One investor on Thursday’s fourth quarter investor call asked if pay-per-view’s such as Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania would be off limits to be sold to a third party. WWE’s interim CFO Frank Riddick mentioned their is nothing stopping them from doing any sort of transaction if they chose to do so.
Hypothetically speaking WWE could have tiered versions of the WWE Network, including a free, regular and premium tier, plus sell the rights to live pay-per-view content to another OTT provider.
WWE does have plans on launching additional tiers of the Network, which according to PWInsider is still being worked on as of last week.
While no specific details were provided, WWE plans on making an announcement sometime during the first quarter of 2020.